Baylor Head Coach Art BrilesOpening Statement..."Well, I tell you what, (this is) an outstanding venue. Great crowd, enthusiastic crowd and just a very festive atmosphere. For our fans, for our university, it’s just a tremendous, tremendous privilege to be able to play in this setting. Of course, we’re extremely disappointed that we didn’t win the football game.

"Valiant, valiant effort. It’s a shame they haven’t been rewarded for the sacrifices they’ve made for our football team and our university. That’s what upsets me more than anything."

On when he decided to start Blake Szymanski at quarterback..."It was probably officially made – what time is the game, 5:10 or 5:30? – then 4:30. I talked to both (Nick Florence and Blake Szymanski) this morning. We worked Blake (Szymanski) a lot with the first team this week just to get him ready, because Nick was game ready already. The stretch, as a quarterback, it wears on you a little bit. Nick (Florence) physically and mentally, he’d never tell you because he’s such a competitor and a great human being and competitor, but it shows a little."

On the performance of senior quarterback Blake Szymanski..."Everybody played hard. You can go to any position and those guys played hard to win. (His pass) came up four yards short. It would be interesting to see if we made it, because we weren’t going into overtime."

On already knowing he was going for two-point conversion..."Yes (I knew we were going for two). We already had a play picked out, actually. We were going to go for two if we scored with less than two minutes left."

On Baylor's missed opportunities..."We did have a lot of opportunities; we really did. And we played great defensively the whole game, and that’s why we had opportunities. And we moved the ball, bounced it around enough, to give us chances. Texas Tech is a good football team defensively, that’s the main thing everybody overlooks. They’ve done a good job for a long time. When you get chances to score, you’ve got to score points."

On lessons returning veterans can take from this season..."There’s a bunch of lessons to begin with. Dream, have hope, believe, fight, perceiver, sustain, be loyal – all those things are lessons that should be learned throughout the course of the season. Nothing’s given to you. What you work for is usually what you’re going to get. So we’ll have to do some things better from a staff wise, program wise, than what we did last year to give our players a better opportunity to do the things we’re going to do."

On the effort of the team…"I don’t think we expected anything different. We have put so much time, work, effort into this thing and we only get 12 shots. Every opportunity we are going to go out there and play hard. That was exactly what was expected."

On his Baylor career being over… "We were sitting there looking at each other and saying, ‘that thing just flies by.’ Especially being a fifth-year guy, you think you would be itching to get out of here, but the way this program is going we are wishing we had another four years."

On the defense against Texas Tech the last two years…"I don’t think I can put my finger on one thing. Early on we were doing a good job of stopping their run. We had a turnover on their first time out and that was huge taking points off the board. Especially down there on the other goal line, with that goal line stand keeping a touchdown off the board. The things that are blaring for me are when they had short fields, they put up points, whether that be through the kickoff team or the punt team or us kind of hurting ourselves with some penalties and kind of backing our offense up."

On what he is taking out of this season… "They want me to step up and be one of the leaders next year, especially since it is going to be my senior year, which I plan on doing anyway. To be around these guys and how they are emotionally attached to the game, I think I should just feed that back to the young guys coming in or the young players we’ve got so we can all just play together."

On the defensive effort… "I think we came out more physically. I guess they didn’t think they were going to come out like we did. Come out fast. Come out hard. Relentless. So I think we put in a lot of effort just by running to the ball, reading our keys right. We had a lot of good plays being made."

On his interception… "I guess the quarterback did not see me. I was in my area, so I just broke on it and started running with it."

On the performance of Blake Szymanski… "He played great. He practiced really well this week, just getting back with his shoulder injury. He was just getting the feel for his game. I think he did an excellent job getting the ball around and helping the offense be as effective as possible."

On being proud of the way thing team played… "My teammates fought well. We never said die. It has been a tough year and we have played through a lot of adversity; losing your starting quarterback three games into the season, then losing your second string quarterback. The team definitely played their butts off and I am definitely proud to be a Baylor Bear."

On his preparation for the game… "I had quite a few reps with the ones this week. It was just kind of one of those things where Nick (Florence) competed and (Coach Art Briles) was just going to make a decision today. You have to prepare yourself like you are the starter."

On if the program is in better shape now… "Without a doubt. There is no question in my mind that Coach Briles is doing good things to turn this program around. From the ground up whether it is recruiting or strength staff or schemes."